Live data from Hacker News

Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

travellemming.com

11–20 of 175 posts

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#11
post #5

> Google plans to use AI to consume and replace the open web. They've been boiling the frog here for a long time. The "open web" is a euphemism for the Google Chrome monoculture walled-garden-in-waiting. Google exert so much influence there that building on the web is in practice barely different than building on say iOS. You can do what you want if you don't want to make money, but if you do then you will have to pl…

>My hunch is Google never psychologically recovered from Facebook absolutely wiping out G+, and they have been on a mission to ensure nothing like that ever happens again.

That's an orthogonal issue to me. IMHO, modern Google never really cared about social media platforms because it never really understood them. Otherwise it would have bought Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Tiktok, Twitter, early on before they became industry titans, the same way they bought Youtube, Maps, etc in the early days.

They've been coasting for so long on the search ad revenue money printer, that they're blind to everything else going on around them, so they're always reacting instead of proactive, but always too late.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#12
post #4

.

I am finding it really hard to not reply with expletives to people that suck it up the way you do to trillion dollar corporations.

They are not wrong. This person is complaining because they WANT traffic, and cant get it, yet refuse to modify their output.

You can either have a business or a hobby, you can't have both.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#13

The article treats as axiom that organic traffic is a right. It's not. Most people don't want to read an article on travel advice when AI gives us much better and specific advice, with references, when we want it.

And where the training data for your AI advice comes from?

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#15
Penalising small websites is a natural consequence of Google's shift towards becoming more and more of a political actor. Google actively tries to suppress content that doesn't support the Silicon Valley narrative, and this best way to achieve this is prioritising a smaller number of large websites and organisations that share the same political values.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#16

The article treats as axiom that organic traffic is a right. It's not. Most people don't want to read an article on travel advice when AI gives us much better and specific advice, with references, when we want it.

And where the training data for your AI advice comes from?

From Reddit and user forums of course.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#17

The article treats as axiom that organic traffic is a right. It's not. Most people don't want to read an article on travel advice when AI gives us much better and specific advice, with references, when we want it.

> The article treats as axiom that organic traffic is a right. It's not. Agreed, but traffic has been the substitute for monetary rewards so far. If they aren't sending the traffic then someone is going to start to need to pay for surfacing and verifying information directly.

It's an open market that will step up to meet the need. IMO, we can't hold back innovation for web-1.0 based text articles + text search model.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#18
It seems inevitable that Google would do this or else they themselves to be killed by someone else.

What concerns me about this general shift is that it leads to groupthink. How do you ensure that new ideas, new innovation, new perspectives are being bootstrapped into the hive mind.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#19

The article treats as axiom that organic traffic is a right. It's not. Most people don't want to read an article on travel advice when AI gives us much better and specific advice, with references, when we want it.

I haven't been able to get much practical travel advice from AI yet, any tips? For stuff like hiking routes, permitting, local cuisine, etc. I don't think it can replace a good blog from an experienced person at this point.

I'd like to engage. Can you give a specific example?

We can make an honest attempt to see what the old vs AI options for it looks like. Both of us will walk away a bit more informed, and share here with others as well.

Re: Google is using AI to censor independent websites like mine

#20
post #5

> Google plans to use AI to consume and replace the open web. They've been boiling the frog here for a long time. The "open web" is a euphemism for the Google Chrome monoculture walled-garden-in-waiting. Google exert so much influence there that building on the web is in practice barely different than building on say iOS. You can do what you want if you don't want to make money, but if you do then you will have to pl…

> My hunch is Google never psychologically recovered from Facebook absolutely wiping out G+, and they have been on a mission to ensure nothing like that ever happens again.

Same for Microsoft with phones.

That's why Google and Microsoft are trying to use AI to crush us while Apple is like "I'm pretty content with how much money I make".

Post reply on HN